


Skin Hunger

by Polly_Phemus (orphan_account)



Series: What Is Owed and Can Never Be Repaid [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode Tag, M/M, Platonic Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 19:12:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11319840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Polly_Phemus
Summary: After St. Louis, things changed, just a little.Episode related: "Skin."  Tagged for non-con because of the underlying nature of their relationship in this particular series.





	Skin Hunger

After St. Louis, things changed, just a little. Not that Dean ever thought about how Sam collected what Dean owed until it was happening, and usually then as little as possible, but if he had, he would've thought that Sam would be even angrier, demanding even more from Dean as he, Sam, finally started to acknowledge that his time at Stanford was, for a Winchester, the part of his life that was not normal.

So that Sam wasn't more angry, that was a bit of surprise. Just in general terms, even without taking the ever-present but rarely acknowledged debt into account. But if Dean had thought (which he didn't, since he didn't think about that particular, really quite small, aspect of their lives at all), that Sam would've demanded less from Dean thanks to his newfound resignation, Dean would've been very much mistaken. 

They'd pushed hard, decided to stop for the night in Tulsa. Becky Warren had slipped Dean some money "for the road"; she'd known Sam wouldn't take it from her but that Dean would, so Dean didn't mind getting a motel room instead of just staying in the car to save a few bucks. 

The only room left where they stopped, though, had one queen-sized and neither of them had the energy to go looking around town for something bigger. It wasn't like they hadn't bunked in together before, but Dean was still a little on edge about it. It would be the first time since Sam had re-joined him and....

Well, they'd spent their whole lives sharing beds as necessary, so that was another thing that was back to normal. Winchester normal.

Sam surprised Dean by volunteering to ward the room and lay the lines. That had always been Dean's job.

"It's not like I don't know how it's done," Sam said matter-of-factly as he reached for Dean's bag. "And you've had kind a rough time of it, last couple of days." Sam had, too, but Dean appreciated that Sam was actually paying attention to the possibility that maybe Sam himself wasn't the only person around who'd gotten the shaft from life.

While Dean luxuriated in a hot shower with passable water pressure, he wondered about what the shapeshifter might've said to Sam. Sam had said the thing had Vulcan mind-melded him, and since the shapeshifter had been a pretty big asshole, it could have said pretty much anything to Sam straight from whatever it got from Dean, things that would've been alarming, without even having to make shit up like evil sonsabitches were known to do.

Dean stopped worrying about it while he toweled off. Sam hadn't said anything more about it and hadn't busted Dean's balls any more than usual during the long day's ride after. 

Dean put on clean boxer-briefs and went over to the window side of the bed, only giving Sam's work a cursory look. Sam did know what he was doing, that much was true, and Dean was more than ready to sack out.

"You can take the inside if you want," Sam said, looking up from the book he was reading at the straight backed chair next to the room's table. "I can keep night watch."

Dean had never known that Sammy knew why Dean always took the bed, or bedside, closest to the window. He'd've figured that Sam just thought it was the way it always was. Dean wasn't sure he'd be able to relax, taking the inside like that, but it was a pretty big offer for Sam to make so he took him up on it, climbing into the bed and rolling over to the opposite side with exaggerated sighs and grunts of satisfaction.

"Enjoying your wallow while I hit the shower," Sam said with some amusement as he put down his book and got up.

"Intend to," Dean said and proceeded to do just that. Whatever happened when Sam got out of the shower, Dean had this moment of wiggling around on clean sheets, pushing aside his worries about Dad and Sam and everything else. Becky had lived, Zach had been exonerated, and Dean was, in the best of all possible ways, a dead man. That would wipe out quite a few bench warrants and his glovebox full of fake ID would take care of any inconveniences.

Still, Dean wasn't quite relaxed enough to be asleep by the time Sammy was done with his shower. He didn't know what was owed on this particular night.

Sam quietly got into bed with him, also only wearing his nighttime shorts, and Dean allowed himself to hope that no repayment would be necessary, at least for this night. Then Sam spoke into the darkness.

"I knew," he said. "I knew right away it wasn't you, even before he caught the keys left-handed." Dean guessed that this left-handed catch must've been something the shapeshifter did, an obvious tell given Dean's shoulder injury. 

"I knew it wasn't you," Sam repeated, rolling over on his side, facing Dean. Dean stared up at the ceiling. It was too dark to map out the cracks in plaster.

"He took my amulet," Dean said. "Took it off me and put it on, like that would make a difference."

Sam snorted. "You're not the amulet," he told Dean. "I'd know my own brother anywhere."

Sam crowded up against Dean even more and this wasn't right. This wasn't the way it worked. There was no angry reminder of how much Dean owed Sam. Nothing except...Sam pulling Dean to him, his skin warm against Dean's, his giant arm snaking over to rest lightly on Dean's chest. Their skin, touching gently, with nothing intended, nothing demanded, nothing owed, beyond simple contact and reconnection. 

"I've missed you, Dean," Sam said quietly. 

"Me, too," Dean said, not sure if he meant he'd missed Sam or himself or if there was really much difference between the two. "Now go to sleep," he ordered. Sam huffed in amused annoyance and no more was said that night.

In Tulsa, after St. Louis, things changed. Just a little.


End file.
